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( 



HORRORS 

OF 

ARMENIA 



Price 10 cents. 






The Story of 
an Rye-witne^^ 

by 

IVilliam IVillard Howard^ 

the only man who penetrated into 
the interior of the devastated re- 
gions of Armenia. 



Published by 

The Armenian Relief Association, 

New York. 



Horrors of Armenia: 



The Story of an Eye-witness. 



'4 






BY 

WILLIAM WILLARD HOWARD. 



^ / 



NEW YORK : 

ARMENIAN RELIEF ASSOCIATION. 

1896. 



Copyright. 1896, by William Willard Howard. 



X\.\\^. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 



Mr. Howard has twice visited Asia Minor in connection with 
the Armenian question. Of the fifteen newspaper correspon- 
dents who left London in December, 1894, to investigate the 
massacres of Armenians in Eastern Turkey, Mr. Howard was 
the only one who succeeded, at the risk of his life, in penetrating 
into the interior of the devastated regions. On his second visit, 
now recently finished, he went as a Relief Commissioner to ar- 
range for the distribution of relief funds. The Turkish govern- 
ment forbade him to enter the country, and put a price on his 
head ; the Kurds shot at him, bandits captured him, and other 
servants of the Sultan made his journey perilous. 

In this little book Mr. Howard speaks from knowledge ac- 
quired by nearly a year and a half of personal observation and 
careful investigation in the distressed country. He is neither 
an Armenian nor a missionary, and he speaks without race or 
religious prejudice. His testimony is the testimony of an un- 
biased American and man of affairs who now comes direct from 
the blood-soaked land of Armenia. 



>5.t? 



H, 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 



I. 

THE CONDITION. 



The Armenian has been abandoned to his fate. 
England has withdrawn her protests and her threats 
of war; Russia has turned her eyes to the farther 
East, and the other Powers of Europe remain silent and 
indifferent, leaving the oldest Christian nation on 
earth in the hands of the most inhuman monster in 
the history of all time. After a year and a half of 
diplomatic remonstrances, indignation meetings, re- 
luctant promises of reform, and agonized appeals of 
tortured men, outraged women, ravished maidens, 
and starving children, the condition of Armenia is 
worse to-day than it has been at any time in the red 
record of the Turkish empire. The situation is de- 
scribed in two lines of Tennyson: 

' ' The red ribbed ledges drip 
With a silent horror of blood." 

As a result of the Sultan's promises of reform three 
thousand villages are in ruins, fifty thousand persons 
are dead, half a million are naked and hungry, all 
business is at an end, and an industrious, peaceful 
people are on the verge of utter extermination. 

The Kurdish tiger, gorged with blood and lust and 
plunder, has slept through the long winter. The 



4 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

snow has been deep and the cold intense, and travel 
has been suspended. Like his American prototype, 
the Apache Indian, the Kurd has little liking for frost 
and snow, and it is not until the grass grows green on 
the hillsides that he saddles his horse for a murdering 
expedition among the Christians. With the coming 
of summer, when the Moslem raiders can find pastur- 
age for their horses, there will be a renewal of all 
those nameless outrages and fiendish atrocities which 
have shocked the civilized world since the premeditated 
assassination at Sassoun in August and September, 
1894. If the Sultan of Turkey, in spite of British 
threats of war and the probable dismemberment of his 
empire, was reckless enough to order the general 
massacre of October, November and December, 1895, 
just after a scheme of reform had been wrung from 
him by the Powers of Europe, it is not in human reason 
to doubt that this blood-lust and butchery will now be 
carried on with increased zeal, for the withdrawal of 
Great Britain, humiliated and ashamed, leaves the 
Turk free of the fear of interference. Having in- 
sulted the American government without causing even 
a remonstrance, the Sultan has dismissed America 
from his mind. When he finds by experiment that he 
can fire upon American citizens and destroy American 
property without being called to account it would be a 
waste of time to take America into consideration. 

When one considers the renewal of the outrages as 
an addition to the unthinkable miseries of the winter 
peace the imagination halts in dismay, for the present 
state of the unhappy people is beyond belief. The 
women and girls who escaped massacre last autumn 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 5 

have lived to endure a worse fate. An honorable death 
would be preferable to the shame, dishonor and deg- 
radation which Moslem fiends are forcing upon them. 
After the massacres the Kurds and Turks began an 
orgy of lust which has seen no cessation, day or night. 
It is their deliberate purpose to utterly debase and 
degrade Armenian women, and so hasten the destruc- 
tion of the Armenian nation. Not one Christian 
woman in the towns and villages escapes. When I 
was in Armenia on my first visit last year there was 
not one village woman in all the length and breadth 
of Armenia who was not ravished by any Kurd or 
Turk who took a passing fancy to her. To-day that 
passing fancy has become a settled policy of defile- 
ment and pollution. 

It is not merely that a maiden's virtue is taken in 
wanton lust and wickedness : that was a common crime 
last year. But now this same girl is violated again 
and again, from day to day, by different men, until 
life is worse to her than death. Nor is it merely 
that girls are ravished continually by different men. 
Matrons and middle-aged women — even old women 
and nine-year-old children — are daily forced to submit 
to the same hideous debauchery. Formerly the nine- 
year-old children, the middle-aged and old women 
were exempt ; but, in carrying out his orders to de- 
stroy the honor and self-respect of the Armenian 
women, neither Turk nor Kurd has time for discrim- 
ination. The Moslem beast is not now ravishing 
women for his own amusement and pleasure: he is 
acting under instructions which he may not disobey. 
What was once a pleasure is now a duty. 



6 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

That husbands, fathers, brothers or sons may feel 
the awful degradation to the utmost they are fre- 
quently bound to posts in their houses to witness the 
dishonoring of wives, mothers, daughters or sisters. 
Sometimes the Moslem ravisher is more merciful, and 
permits the men to go to the fields until the shameful 
visit is over. 

To protest is death. If it were merely plain death 
it would not matter, for death would be a release from 
a life that has long since ceased to be of any value : it 
is outrage and torture that even the most hopelessly 
desperate man shrinks from. Yet death by torture 
is one of the commonest forms of Christian death in 
the Ottoman empire. A man who protests against 
the defilement of wife, mother, sister or daughter is 
usually first beaten until few of his friends would 
recognize him. Then the soles of his feet are held 
before an open fire until the flesh drops off. After 
that his tongue may be pulled out, or red hot irons 
thrust into his eyes. If he is not dead by this time 
he is hacked to pieces with knives. Or he may be 
hung up by the sensitive parts of his body until he dies 
in unspeakable agony. While I was in the city of 
Van, the centre of Armenia, Boghos, headman of the 
large and important village of Boghas Kessan, now a > 
heap of ruins, was put to death in the prison at Van 
by the crushing of his sensitive parts. He was guilty 
of no crime ; yet Bahri Pasha, governor of the pro- 
vince of Van, caused his death in this savage manner. 
Sometimes a man who protests against the degrada- 
tion of his household is taken to a lonely place in the 
mountains and buried up to his neck in the ground. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA, 7 

He is left there until wolves come down and tear his 
head to pieces. 

But it is not alone the man who protests against 
the violation of his women folk that is tortured to 
death. Fiendish atrocities are perpetrated upon men 
for no reason whatever. Soon after I left Van the 
Rev. H. M. Allen, an American missionary attached 
to the Van station, and Cecil M. Hallward, Esq., 
British Vice-Consul at Van, made a tour of the dis- 
tricts of Moks and Shadakh. During their journey 
they were for part of a day guests of an Armenian 
priest, who impressed them as being an unusually re- 
fined, cultured, educated and pious man. After Mr. 
Allen and Mr. Hallward had left the village the 
Mohammedans seized the priest, skinned him, and 
stuffed his skin with hay. The stuffed skin was then 
hung in the village street as a warning of worse things 
to come if the Christians dared complain of persecu- 
tion and oppression. 

Last November, soon after my arrival in Asia Minor 
on my second visit to the Armenians, three hundred 
and fifty villages in the province of Van were destroyed 
by order of the Sultan. In one village an Armenian 
priest, a pious and worthy man, was burned at the 
stake. In the village of Kartalon, the entire popu- 
lation, consisting of two hundred men, women and 
children, were put to death by the Sultan's soldiers 
because they would not renounce Christ and accept 
Mohammed. A refugee from another village told me 
that forty young women and girls had been forced to 
remove all their clothing, join hands in a circle and 
dance for an hour around a group of blood-smeared 



8 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

soldiers. When I asked what took place when the 
dance was ended the wretched refugee turned away 
with sobs and tears of rage. His wife and sister had 
been among the dancers. 

** Where are they now ? " I asked. 

" God knows," he said. " I hope death has ended 
their shame, for the Kurds carried them off to the 
mountains. I shall never see them again." 

Abduction is not now such a frequent occurrence as 
it was last year. It is no longer necessary. Instead 
of lying ip wait for a girl in the fields, or going in 
armed force to her house to carry her to the mountains, 
the Kurds now merely go to a Christian village and 
select whomsoever they wish. 

Formerly a bride was forcibly dragged off as the 
bridal procession left the church door. There is no 
longer any need, or even opportunity, for that, as 
marriages in Armenia have practically ceased. Any 
girl who presumes to make preparation for a wedding 
merely invites additional violation and defilement 
at the hands of her Mohammedan neighbors. Last 
year Turks and Kurds considered it praiseworthy 
sport to abduct a bride from a wedding procession, 
take her to the mountains, keep her in a Kurdish vil- 
lage until every man of the tribe had violated her, and( 
then return her, half-crazed and polluted, to her heart- 
broken bridegroom if he had happened to escape as- 
sassination at the time of the abduction. In many 
cases the bride's father and brothers and the bride- 
groom and his male relatives were killed while trying 
to prevent the capture. 

I have visited the spot where four bridegrooms 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA, g 

were murdered at one time while vainly attempting 
to protect their brides against a party of Kurds. The 
brides were ravished in the presence of their dead and 
mutilated husbands, and then turned loose with taunts 
and jeers. No longer fearing death or caring for life, 
the frenzied young women procured the assistance of 
relatives and bore the bloody corpses of their dead to 
the house of the governor of Van, demanding justice. 
The governor looked out of the window and said: 
*' Yes, I see. It's really too bad." The Kurdish rav- 
ishers and murderers were known to be in the city at 
that moment, yet no attempt was made to arrest them. 
Not only does the Turkish government give abso- 
lutely no protection to Christian women, but its high 
officials actually take an active part in the work of 
abduction and degradation. While I was in Van, 
Neuri Effendi, chief of police, had in his harem four 
Christian girls from the villages of Sassoun. They 
are there yet unless Neuri has grown tired of them 
and cut off their heads. At that time there was good 
reason to believe that seventy Christian girls were 
forced and unwilling inmates of the harems of Turkish 
officials in the city of Van. Abd-ul-Hamid, Sultan of 
Turkey, and the "Shadow of God on Earth," buys 
Christian girls from professional kidnappers, and it is 
not strange that his officials follow his example. If 
unwilling to pay money to an abductor, the official has 
never hesitated to go on kidnapping expeditions on 
his own account. The spectacle of a Turkish gover- 
nor chasing a Christian bride like a hunted deer through 
the streets of a village is by no means unknown in the 
Ottoman empire. 



lo kORRORS OF ARMEiSflA. 

I have in my possession notes and records of au- 
thenticated cases of abductions, nameless outrages, 
forced conversion to Mohammedism, and every crime 
against and violation of woman that the human mind 
can conceive of ; yet I cannot make these things 
known lest the wretched victims be put to death and . 
their unfortunate relatives imprisoned and tortured. 
I have mentioned the name of Boghos only because he 
and his friends are forever beyond all harm. I can 
give only an instance here and there, without names 
or dates, and let that serve as a type of the whole. 
Moreover, I cannot tell the full measure of this awful 
tale, because the English language has its limitations. 
Even though it were possible to make public some- 
thing more than a fractional part of the actual truth, 
the clean, decent Christian mind of America could 
neither appreciate nor understand. 

The Turk is so absolutely without a moral sense, 
so unutterably bestial in his consideration of woman, 
so unthinkably vile and filthy in his personal habits, 
and so hopelessly degraded in his relations with his 
fellow man that the depth of his infamy is past all hu- 
man credence. 

The Turk is not a human being. I do not call him y 
a beast, because not one of God's dumb creatures ^ 
could sink so low. The Turk is a devil without a tail. 
And the educated, polished Turk — the official who 
affects a knowledge of the French language and a ' 

veneering of Parisian manners — is the most unspeak- 
able fiend of all. In proof that this assertion is based 
upon incontestable truth I challenge denial from 
any unprejudiced man who has known the Turk 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. tt 

thoroughly well for a quarter of a century. 

All the abominations barely hinted at in the Bible 
are common, everyday incidents of the Turk's life. 
But each succeeding generation of Turks has appar- 
ently added some new and ingenious form of iniquity 
to the abominations of early days, so that the inhabit- 
ants of Sodom, if yet alive, might consider themselves 
reasonably clean and pure by comparison. And the 
helpless followers of Christ in Asia Minor are in the 
slimy grasp of this unmatched monster of sin and 
shame. As for the character of the Kurd, a remark- 
ably accurate description may be found in the book of 
Isaiah. 

When the Turk has, for the moment, satisfied his 
bestial lust in a Christian village he amuseshimself by 
adding horror upon horror to the woes of the power- 
less peasants. In a village near the northeastern shore 
of Lake Van a party of soldiers, after repeatedly violat- 
ing the women and girls, killed a baby and boiled the 
body in an iron pot. When the tender flesh was 
cooked the mother of the child was compelled to eat 
of it tmtil she became a raving maniac through grief 
and horror. 

This incident was reported to the British govern- 
ment by an English Vice-Consul whom I know; yet 
the Foreign Office remained inactive. I have, in fact, 
selected from my notes for use here only those things 
which I am certain have been reported to the British 
government through Her Majesty's own consuls. 

Occasionally I am asked why the Armenian women 
do not put an end to their lives rather than en- 
dure outrage and defilement ; and why, also, the Ar- 



12 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

menian men do not resist to the death this pollution 
of their homes. The Armenians are a strongly re- 
ligious people, and they believe that they should live 
out the lives that God has given to them, no matter 
what may happen. Self-destruction is a sin which 
finds no atonement in the hereafter. Therefore, they 
endure hell on earth that they may not lose hope of 
heaven to come. Yet, many, many an Armenian 
woman, preferring eternal damnation to personal defile- 
ment, has ended her own life to escape the degrada- 
tion of Turkish lust. The Tigris and Euphrates 
rivers have hidden many a Christian woman's despair, 
and precipices on Taurus mountain sides have wit- 
nessed the death plunge of women and girls who were 
willing to pay even the price of salvation to avoid the 
Turk's embrace. 

Armenian women value virtue and religious faith 
above all things. When death has been offered as a 
penalty for adherence to Christianity few Armenian 
women have refused it. In every massacre in Turkey 
the wretched, panic-stricken Armenians have been 
given their choice between Mohammedism and death. 
Last year's fifty thousand dead speak with mute lips 
of unquenchable faith in Christ. In the massacre at 
Kharput the fugitives filled a large Armenian church. 
The venerable pastor, whose son I know well, ex- 
horted them to remain steadfast in their faith, even 
unto death. The despairing creatures were brought 
out and told to choose between Mohammed and death. 
They chose death. One after another, the pastor 
first, they were asked: "Will you accept Moham- 
med ? " As each one unfalteringly answered " No ! " 



/ 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. ij 

the executioner's sword fell. Not one wavered in this 
modern-day martyrdom for Christ. No saintly martyr 
of any race, who has died for the faith in any age of 
the world, could do more than that. 

It is idle to ask why the Armenian men d( - not resist 
the pollution of their women. The bones of thousands 
who did resist are scattered from the Black Sea to 
Arabia, and from the Dardanelles to Persia. From a 
practical point of view it is worse to resist than to sub- 
mit. It is not that the Armenians fear death. To 
most of them death not of their own volition would 
be accepted as a relief. But they have others besides 
themselves to think of. If the men resisted they 
would be exterminated from the face of the earth, and 
the women would be left to perish miserably or be- 
come concubines and slaves in Turkish harems. So 
long as the men live tho women will have support 
and comfort, and such protection as a Christian woman 
may expect in the Turkish empire. Should the men 
resist and bring dea.lh on themselves the Armenian 
race would die with them, and there would be an end 
of the Armeniar'. question for all time. No matter 
what his agony of heart and mind, the Armenian can- 
not leave his wife and daughters alone. 

While parsing along the trail near a village in the 
province (of Van I was stopped by a grief-stricken 
Armenian, who seized the bridle-rein of my horse and 
blocked the way. 

*'Oh, illustrious and merciful stranger, whom 
fortune hath thrice blessed, if thou art a Christian, 
ever though of another race, hear the voice of de- 
spair! " 



14 ' /HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

" Speak, " said I ; " my ears listen. " 

' ' Even now the son of a Kurdish Sheikh came to 
my house in yonder village and selected my two young 
daughters for his infamous and brutal lust. He com- 
mands me^ on pain of death, to keep them free from 
the touch o'- any other man until it shall please him to 
come for them. ' Oh, man with a human heart ! Tell 
me what shall I do? They are but little children, and 
they are dearer to me than my life, which, in itself, is 
no longer of any worth. In the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth, turn not away! " 

" Have you given offense to the Sheikh's son? " 

" Not so, oh, friend of the persecuted. My attitude 
toward him has ever been friendly and humble. I 
have given him gifts of butter and cheese and sheep 
and goats. I have herded his flocks without pay, and 
whenever his lambs and kids have been stolen by wild 
beasts I have made good the loss from my own raeagre 
foM." 

' Why, think you, has he singled out your children 
for his vile purpose? " 

"Because they are the only virgins remaining in 
the village. All the others have been violated by 
Kurds, Turkish officials, tax-gatherers and soldiers. 
My children have escaped, up to the present time, 
owing to their youth. One is only nine years old and 
the other ten. If they are ravished I shall go mad. " 

"Have you any money with which to buy their 
safety? " 

' ' Once I was rich and prosperous, with many sheep 
and goats and cattle and fields of grain; but now I 
have nothing. The Kurds, the TurkSj the tax-gath-. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 15 

erers and the soldiers have taken everything. " 

*' Have you a rifle?" 

" MercifulGod ! Have I a rifle? I have not even 
a knife with which to cut the little food that I am able 
to scrape together. If I had a rifle I should be tempted 
to use it on the Sheikh's son when he comes to ravish 
my children, and then destruction would fall upon the 
entire village." 

''What would happen?" 

' ' The Kurds would put every man in the village to 
death with horrible tortures ; they would brutally ravish 
my children before my eyes, and skin me alive and 
burn me at the stake, and after violating all the 
women and girls in the place they would drive them 
out into the fields and burn the village to the ground. 
That would be the result, oh, kindly stranger, should 
I use a rifle in defense of my children." 

' ' Will not the government protect you if you make 
complaint ? " This was an unnecessary question, as I 
knew what the government would do in such a case ; 
but I wanted to add one more man's testimony to the 
damning verdict. 

"The government! " said the poor man, clenching 
his hands in impotent rage. "The Sheikh's son him- 
self is a high officer of the government. If I com- 
plained I should be cast into prison and tortured and 
killed, and my children would be taken as slaves to a 
Turkish harem. It is destruction and death to com- 
plain. " 

"Can you not take your children and escape out of 
Turk-^v by night ? ' ' 



i6 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

* ' If I had money for food by the way, and if I 
had a gun with which to defend myself and my 
children against attack, I could steal off to the moun- 
tains by night and escape. But I have neither food 
nor gun. For the sake of Jesus of Nazareth, tell me 
what to do?" 

While I looked at him a sudden terror came into 
his face. He pointed mutely down the trail and 
darted out of sight among the rocks. A small body 
of Hamidieh cavalry came trotting along the moun- 
tain side, and, after eyeing me wolfishly for a moment, 
went on. What the Armenian's fate would have been 
had they found him talking to me I hestitate to con- 
jecture. 

In another village a man insisted upon showing me 
seven hideous sword wounds which he had received 
while trying to protect his sister from dishonor. In 
the same place a man had gone mad as the result of 
witnessing the violation of his daughter. 

My notes are rich in horrors of this sort, to say 
nothing of murders, tortures, forced conversions to 
Mohammedism, highway robbery, defilement of holy 
places, and confiscation and destruction of churches ; 
yet I have spoken herein only of the normal condition 
of Armenia, without reference to the recent massacres. 
The massacres themselves I shall not attempt to de- 
scribe, for the Armenian question is not so much what 
took place last year as what is the present condition of 
the country and its probable future. 

The present condition may be partly understood 
by taking the situation as I have herein barely out- 
lined it, and adding to it actual starvation in its most 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. ly 

appalling forms. After the massacres last autumn 
fifty thousand village refugees crowded into the city 
of Van for safety. On the first day of March, 1896, 
the relief committee was feeding nineteen thousand of 
them. Attempts were being made at that time to in- 
duce some of the refugees to return to their destroyed 
villages in the hope that the Kurds had overlooked a 
little of the grain stored in underground pits. One 
party of returning refugees died of cold and hunger 
on the way. Writing on this subject at that time one 
of the American missionaries at Van said : 

*' Whoever goes back now is promptly murdered." 
The same writer thus outlines the situation in that 
district : 

' ' These weeks before us are to be anxious ones. 
If political action is not taken by the middle of April 
or May terrible things will be writ in blood here." 
In another letter this missionary says : 
''The relief work grows continually, and if the 
condition of political affairs does not speedily mend 
the entire population will be in want of bread. Those 
who have had bread up to the present (March i) are 
coming to the end of their resources, and every day 
adds to the list of our beneficiaries by the score. We 
see no signs of political help. We have five to six 
weeks of waiting until the roads are open, and then 
surely something will come to put an end to this un- 
bearable situation. Either some European power 
must come in to coerce reforms or else anarchy and 
terrible bloodshed and horrors will run riot here. So 
you can imagine we wait, with almost breathless in- 
terest, to see whether the verdict is to be life or death 



i8 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

for our poor neighbors and friends. It is terrible to 
look on this or that well-known and esteemed man 
and think that he may fall a victim — he and all his — 
to the fanatical hatred of his Moslem neighbors." 

To one who knows the strong will, dauntless cour- 
age and unfaltering hope of the writer there is in this 
letter an undertone of pathos and despair that cannot 
be put into words. 

Such was the state of things in Armenia during the 
winter tranquility. If life or death depends on coercion 
by an European power it is not difficult to forecast the 
future. No European power has the slightest inten- 
tion of interfering. The situation in Van in January 
was so desperate that the two married ladies of the 
American mission station vv^ere escorted to Persia over 
mountain trails covered with six feet of unbroken 
snow, in a temperature of several degrees below zero. 
The unmarried ladies would have gone with them had 
they been willing to abandon the girls of the mission 
school to a fate worse than death. I have been look- 
ing for a massacre in Van since last August. As a 
matter of actual fact, which I can vouch for, a mas- 
sacre in Van in December was averted by the merest 
hair's breadth. During all of the past winter the 
American missionaries stood heroically to their duty, 
although they felt absolutely certain that a massacre 
might take place at any moment. More than one of 
them has said to me: "We are living on the edge of a 
volcano, the mutterings of which we can hear day and 
night." 

The writer of the foregoing letter is as capable and 
as dispassionate a judge of the Armenian situation as 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. ig 

any person in Turkey, and I accept that forecast of the 
future as being the only one which a rational-minded 
person could make. Its value to me lies not in the 
fact that it coincides vv^ith my own forecast, but as the 
deliberate judgment of one of the best-balanced minds 
in the mission service. To any unprejudiced person 
who has investigated the Armenian question in the 
distressed regions of Eastern Turkey the making of 
an accurate forecast is not a particularly difficult 
matter. A year ago, during my first visit to Asia 
Minor, I made public a forecast of the events in Tur- 
key for the summer and autumn of 1895. In the 
autumn, one of the leading London papers reprinted 
parts of that forecast and pointed out the remarkable 
manner in which the predictions had been fulfilled. 
Every event that I had predicted had come to pass, 
including the assassinations in Constantinople and the 
massacres throughout Armenia. I am neither a prc- 
phet nor the son of a prophet, and I claim no prophetic 
ability. The forecast which I made a year ago was 
not prophecy or theoretic speculation. It was merely 
the natural deduction of facts which I had obtained 
after many hundreds of miles of weary travel on horse- 
back and months of patient investigation. Any man 
who is willing to carry his life in his hand; to sleep in 
stables; to live on unpalatable food; to ride on horse- 
back 2,500 miles, and to sift to the bottom a bewilder- 
ing mass of Mohammedan lies in the hope of finding 
the precious kernel of truth, can make forecasts with 
equal accuracy, provided that he is a trained observer 
and is able to judge facts not only as isolated actual^ 
ties but with respect to their relation to each other. 



20 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

Knowing from actual, personal contact the condition 
of affairs in Asia Minor, and giving due consideration 
to all the component and correlative parts of the situa- 
tion, one can forecast the immediate future with 
unvarying exactitude. 

My missionary friend, whose horizon of personal 
observation is necessarily restricted to Armenia, says 
that unless some European power takes coercive 
measures anarchy and terrible bloodshed and horrors 
will run riot. Circumstances caused me to include in 
my investigation of the Armenian question, not only 
Armenia itself but all of Northern Persia, the Cau- 
casus region of Asiatic Russia, Southern Russia, 
Germany, France, England, Constantinople and the 
Turkish coast of the Black Sea, and I say, as an addi- 
tion to the missionary's forecast, which coincides pre- 
cisely with my own, that neither the British govern- 
ment nor any other European power contemplates 
using coercive measures. 

In Great Britain there is no secret about the 
government's position. The statesmen who direct the 
destinies of the empire believe that it is better to let 
the entire Armenian race in Turkey perish by fire and 
sword and nameless atrocity than to kindle an Euro- 
pean war, which would cause the death of hundreds 
of thousands of men. The rest of Europe has little 
interest, one way or another, in the fate of the Arme- 
nians. 

Until I see some radical change in the attitude of 
the great powers I shall consider European inter- 
ference in Turkish affairs so remote a contingency 
that it need not be taken seriously into account. 



HORRORS OF A KM EN I A. st 

Leaving out of consideration, as anyone must who 
is guided by the actual facts and not by theoretic 
speculation, the possibility of European interference, 
the present situation in Armenia is seen to be the most 
desperate that has ever confronted a Christian race. 
The relief funds have run out, the suffering people 
have come to the end of their own pitiful store of 
food, epidemics of loathesome disease have seized 
upon the starving refugees in the cities, the atrocities 
have begun again, and a riot of bloodshed and horror 
is impending. 

The future is as plain as the past. Even without 
a renewal of wholesale massacres in obedience to 
orders from the ''Shadow of God on Earth," there 
will be the same raping and ravishing of women and 
girls, the same beating and torturing of men, and the 
same skinning and burning of priests as in the recent 
past. In the event of general massacres men will be 
buried alive in pits in the ground, and the earth will 
be trampled down upon their writhing bodies. Other 
living men will be bound hand and foot and corded 
up in rows, one row upon another, with brushwood 
between. Then kerosene oil will be poured upon the 
squirming mass and set on fire. Moslem fiends will 
dance about this awful funeral pile until the bodies of 
these Christian men have burned to ashes. These 
things will be done, because they have been done in 
Armenia within the past two years. 

I have seen starvation. If I could forget it Ar- 
menia might be to me less of a living horror than it 
has been for more than a year. No man can realize 
the awfulness of famine until he meets it face to face. 



22 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

If he once sees it he will never forget. One may face 
with fortitude the hunger of strong men, but the 
starvation of women and children is beyond all human 
endurance. 

Passing through an Armenian village in the pro- 
vince of Van one afternoon I halted my party before 
a house where a little girl was crying in the street. 
A spectre of famine, in the person of a raiddle-aged 
man, sat listlessly by the door. 

'' Why does the child cry? " I asked. 

'* The man looked up weakly, with the eyes of de- 
spair. '^ I know not, " he said. 

'* Surely, one who is apparently the child's father 
makes a strange reply to a simple question. Speak, 
thou ; why does the child cry ? " 

" It cries because it cries," he answered wearily. 

*' Not so; there must be a better- reason." 

'' Perhaps so; but I am a Christian dog, and thoii 
art a great lord with fine horses and strong servants. 
Why should the grief of my little child concern thee?" 

" Thou art a man, as I am. Speak, then, as man 
to man. Why does the child cry ? " 

" It cries because it is hungry," 

''Is there no food for a helpless child ? " My cook 
had already dismounted, with a bag of bread in his 
hand. This experience was new neither to him nor 
to me. 

'' Food ! " said the man, his eyes moving unsteadily 
and his wasted hands trembling nervously. "Truly, 
there is abundance of food. There is the bark 
of trees by the watercourses which one may gnaw 
from dawn till dark, there is grass growing in the 



HOkRORS OF ARMENIA. 23 

fields, there are roots to be dug on the mountain side, 
there are strong weeds to be had in the ditches, and 
there is moss to be gathered from the rocks." 

*' But bread! " I broke in with; *' is there no bread 
for a crying child? " 

" Verily, master, there is much bread," he replied; 
'* beautiful black bread, made from linseed and flax- 
seed and the seed of the clover which intoxicates him 
who eats. See, my lord, here is bread, if it please 
you to eat. Fear not to touch it, for it is not a cake 
of stable refuse, although it may have that appear- 
ance." He held out a round cake of stuff that re- 
sembled the cakes of dried stable refuse which serve 
as fuel in Asia. 

'' It is the hunger bread of Armenia," said one of 
my men. " Do not eat of it, for a steady diet of it 
injures the mind." 

I ate a very small piece, which was quite enough. 
It had the taste of bitter weeds or nauseous medicinal 
herbs. I exchanged good, wholesome wheat bread 
for five small cakes of it which I have brought home 
to America as specimens of the famine food of Ar- 
menia. The child's crying was stopped by a piece of 
bread nearly as big as herself. The cook shook out 
the bread bag, and the villagers, who had gathered 
around us, snapped up the crumbs with wolfish eager- 
ness. 

The history of this village was but the story of 
every Christian village in Turkey. The villagers had 
been reduced from prosperity to starvation by the 
illegal exactions of tax-gatherers, " the demands of 
Turkish officials, and the raids of Kurds. In ordinary 



24 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

times the villager might reasonably expect to retain 
for his own use one-fourth of his crop. He gave one 
share to his Kurdish neighbors as blackmail under the 
form of tribal protection ; he gave another to the 
government for taxes, and a third in gifts to the local 
officials. In addition, he could count upon losing a 
fourth share at the hands of Kurdish raiders. In 
times of active persecution, such as last year, the 
Kurds pastured their cattle in his growing wheat 
fields, as I myself have seen, and, during the harvest, 
came down to the threshing floors-and stole all the grain 
that they could carry away, leaving for the Armenians 
only wheat straw to eat. 

This state of things made no difference to the tax- 
gatherers. To collect the same tax twice in a year was 
a common occurrence, and if the villagers were unable 
to pay they were beaten and tortured by the soldiers, 
and the women and girls were violated. 

After the tax-gatherers had thus slaked their thirst 
for outrage and cruelty, the portable property, even to 
the cooking utensils, was sold to Mohammedan bid- 
ders in farcical public sale for a twentieth part of its 
value. The village was thus left stripped of every- 
thing, and the people were reduced to eating the grass 
and herbs of the field. 

Most of the villages m Armenia were in that 
impoverished condition when the Sultan ordered the 
massacres to take place last autumn. Where the 
Moslem assassins, raiding under orders, found any 
property they carried it off, destroyed the village and 
drove the Christians out into the mountains, food! ess 
and naked. Even the women were stripped to a single 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 2S 

dress garment. While I was in Tabriz, Persia, on my 
way home late last February, a Turkish caravan came 
to the city with great quantities of clothing which had 
been taken from the persons of Christian women in 
Armenia during the massacres in November and 
December. The Turkish caravan-master had the 
hardihood to offer this pathetic cargo to the Armenian 
merchants of Tabriz. 

I had no need of this evidence to prove to me that 
the Armenian women had been stripped of their 
clothing, for the woeful condition of the refugees 
spoke as distinctly as a caravan of their blood-spat- 
tered garments. When I opened my first relief sta- 
tions Armenian women came to me barefooted and 
stockingless through two feet of snow. I found a fur 
overcoat none too warm, yet they were protected from 
the freezing cold by only thin calico wrappers. One 
wrinkled, haggard old woman in particular attracted 
my attention. 

*'You are too old and feeble to come barefooted 
through the snow," said I. '' Let your daughter come 
for you next time." 

*' Old! " she sobbed; " I am not so old. I shall be 
only nineteen years of age next month. And I have 
no longer any daughter. I am now alone in the world. 
Would to God I, too, could die ! All my relatives have 
been killed. My sister threw herself into the water to 
escape defilement by the Kurds, and the soldiers tossed 
my baby girl into the air and let her fall upon the 
points of their swords. It is better so ; for I shall now 
have no daughter to be ravished when she grows up. 
Do I look old? Have I no cause for looking old? I 



26 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

have lived through a thousand years of agony." 

She came close beside me, and scanned my face 
with a searching stare. ** Tell me, thou man who art 
wise with the wisdom of many strange lands, does the 
priest speak a true word when he says that it is sin to 
put an end to one's life? Speak," she said. 

I bowed my head in assent, for mere words would 
not come. 

''Mother of Jesus!" she moaned, groping blindly 
in the sunlight ; ' ' and I have before me fifty years of 
agony. " 

A woman who had come limping painfully on frost- 
bitten feet looked on in pity. ' ' Poor girl, " she said, ' ' her 
suffering is greater than she can bear. But many a 
Christian mother's arms are empty to-day that lately 
held laughing infants. I, too, could tell a tale; but 
the sympathetic ear of the giver of relief is already 
wearied with the cries of despair. " 

"Poor dead baby," said another woman whose 
bare ankles were swollen with the sting of frost. ' ' But 
its little life was quickly snuffed out, and that was a 
mercy. I have heard of a babe that crawled through 
a pool of blood and sought nourishment at its slaught- 
ered mother's breast. I thank God I did not see that. " 

The poor women insisted upon crowding about me 
and kissing my hands, in token of gratitude for the 
relief. ' ' It must have been mothers with little child- 
ren of their own who gave you this money," one of 
them said. ' ' Tell them that poor, childless Armenian 
widows will pray that their babies may be spared to 
grow up strong men and good and beautiful women. 
O, God in heaven! I shall never again feel the soft, 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 27 

clinging touch of a baby at my breast ! " 

"Thou art not a missionary, nor yet a priest?" 
asked another. 

"No," I rephed; " 1 am neither missionary nor 
priest." 

"Then speak to me a true word. Is it true, this 
which I have heard, that all the women of your far- 
away country are wise and good and beautiful like the 
wives and sisters of the missionaries here?" 

" It is a true word." 

"And are they all safe from the violence of soldiers, 
tax-gatherers and government officials? " 

"Any soldier, tax-gatherer or official would give 
his life to defend any woman against harm." 

The woman looked at me fixedly for a moment. 
"Truly," she said, "thou hast the face and eyes of 
truth; yet thy tongue utters strange things. Thou 
dost speak of paradise, yet thou art but a mortal man. " 
She turned away, shaking her head slowly, as though 
struggling with a doubt. 



sS HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

II. 

THE CAUSE. 

The blackest spot on earth is the heart of the 
Sultan of Turkey. The great monsters of history 
appear as puny weaklings, infirm of purpose and 
irresolute in execution, when contrasted with Abd-ul- 
Hamid, the "Shadow of God on Earth." Even 
Nero, whose fiddling while Rome burned is a synonym 
for deliberate cruelty, was a child in comparison. It 
is the inhuman blackness of this man's heart that has 
brought outrage and torture and death to Christian 
homes in Asia Minor. Every massacre, every whole- 
sale Kurdish raid, every bloody disturbance in Arme- 
nia since August, 1894, has had its origin in this man's 
heart. No unprejudiced human being in Turkey has 
any doubt of that. 

Abd-ul-Hamid asserts that the disturbances in his 
empire were caused by revolutionary uprisings among 
the Armenians. I deny that absolutely. Not one 
massacre in all the crimson list, from Sassoun to Urfa, 
was caused by Armenian attack or uprising. The 
Blue Book, of the British Foreign OfHce, may be taken 
as authority on that point, and a careful reading of 
that will show not only that in each case the Moham- 
medans were the aggressors, but that in nine-tenths 
of the big massacres the work of butchery was the 
result of preconcerted arrangement sanctioned and 
directed by the Turkish government.* 

* See Blue Book, "Turkey No. 2 (1896)," presented to Parliament Feb- 
ruary, 1896. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 2g 

More than that, Abd-ul-Hamid, as I can prove, 
issued orders for massacres which the Kurds refused 
to carry out. 

If the Sultan of Turkey desires the world to believe 
that he is merely putting down Armenian uprisings 
he must stop murdering other Christians. He must 
not give orders for the destruction of Jacobites, Chal- 
deans and Nestorians. He may succeed in dazzling 
the eyes of American diplomats and casual visitors to 
Constantinople, but to obtain the confidence of think- 
ing men he must be consistent. 

During the massacres of Armenians last autumn 
the Sultan sent to the kaimakam of Gawar, a district 
in eastern Kurdistan, an order directing that all the 
Nestorian Christians of the region should be massacred. 
The kaimakam called the Kurdish Sheikhs together, 
exhibited the order, and said: "Obey." After con- 
sultation the Kurds declared : ' * We will not kill these 
Christians, because they are our oxen. They are our 
slaves, and we do not desire to destroy our property." 

''But there is the order from the Sultan himself," 
said the kaimakam. 

"True," replied the Sheikhs, "it is an order; but 
who is to take the places of these people to do our 
work if we destroy them? We will not kill them, but 
we will give to the Sultan a paper making ourselves 
responsible for these Christians when they are wanted." 
The paper was given, and the order for the massacre 
was recalled. 

This matter was first brought to my attention by a 
Nestorian protestant who had escaped from Gawar at 
the risk of his life. Two weeks later a Kurdish 



so HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

Sheikh who holds a position of considerable impor- 
tance in the Turkish service in Gawar told precisely 
the same story, adding, by way of corroboration : ' ' I 
was one of the Sheikhs who signed the paper." Since 
that time the Christians in Gawar have been bottled 
up so effectually that not one of them can get away 
without assistance from the Kurds. Meantime the 
Hamidieh cavalry in the district is being reinforced 
and strengthened. The Kurds are told that they may 
expect active service when summer begins. 

The Nestorians have nothing to do with the Ar- 
menians. They are a different race, and they have 
no revolutionary or nationalistic ambitions. They are 
satisfied to be allowed to live. There is no tangible 
reason why the Sultan should murder them if he seeks 
only to suppress Armenian revolutionary uprisings. 

During the massacres last November the Jacobite 
and Chaldean villages in the Mardin district were de- 
stroyed, the men were murdered, and many of the 
women and girls were carried to the mountains. 
Neither the Jacobites nor the Chaldeans have any 
concern in Armenian affairs, nor have they any 
revolutionary conspiracies of their own. Like the 
Nestorians, they are satisfied to be allowed to pasture 
their flocks, to cultivate their fields, and to live their 
simple pastoral lives unmolested. There was no cause 
why these harmless Christian peasants should have 
been butchered to quell Armenian uprisings. They 
were not even in an Armenian district, their homes 
being on the edge of the Syrian desert. Abd-ul- 
Hamid must add consistency to his cunning if he 
would not make it impossible for his hard-worked 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 31 

apologists in America and England to save his charac- 
ter from universal condemnation. 

The proof that Abd-ul-Hamid gave the orders for 
the massacres last autumn is not hard to find. It can 
be had from Kurds, Turkish officials and foreign con- 
suls, to say nothing of the evidence of attending cir- 
cumstances. I have had in my possession for a year 
ample proof that the Sassoun massacre was planned 
by the Sultan several months before it took place. I 
will make public the facts now for the first time. 

In the summer of 1893 the Kurds, after levying 
their customary tribute from the Sassoun villages, 
made a supplementary raid, which the villagers re- 
sisted. News of this was sent to Constantinople, and 
the Sassoun district was marked for destruction. 
Little could be done at that time, as winter came to 
the high mountain passes of Sassoun in September, 
preventing further operations. The Sultan made his 
plans, however, and early in the summer of 1894 he 
prepared to carry them out. 

In July and August large quantities of kerosene 
were sent from Erzeroum to the city of Moush, on the 
northern edge of Sassoun. People wondered what 
Moush intended to do with so much kerosene, but no 
questions were answered. At the same time unusual 
numbers of soldiers from neighboring provinces 
were concentrated at Moush, No one could explain 
this. Simultaneously with .this ingathering of soldiers 
there was a sudden demand for horses far and near. 
In the streets of Van caravans were stopped, their 
loads were dumped to the ground and the horses 
seized for the use of the soldiers. Not even a pretense 



32 HORRORS OF ARMENIA, 

of paying for the animals was made by the officials 
who took them. All through the suirnmer strange 
tribes of Kurds gathered, as though by common in- 
stinct, about the Sassoun district. Hundreds came 
from Diarbekr and beyond. All camped with pack ani- 
mals within easy striking distance of the Sassoun vil- 
lages. A Spaniard of the name of Ximenez arrived in 
Van early in August and remained there until late in 
September. It was known that he sent telegrams to 
and received messages from the Sultan's palace at 
Constantinople, 

In the closing days of August the Kurds and the 
troops pounced upon Sassoun, and when the work of 
death and destruction began the kerosene from Erze- 
roum was found to be at hand to accelerate the burn- 
ing of the houses and to cremate human bodies, 
Ximenez was at Van prepared to bear witness in the 
capitals of Europe that he had passed through the 
Sassoun region in September and found no traces of 
a massacre. He subsequently went to London, where 
he repeatedly asserted that no massacre had taken 
place, basing his assertion upon the fact that he had 
been in Sassoun at the time that the massacre was 
supposed to have occurred. Ximenez was in Van all 
the time, as I have learned from persons who saw him 
there every day during that time. In London he 
tried to organize mass meetings to protest against the 
outcry over Turkish barbarity, but his first meeting 
was such a failure that the Turkish government re- 
fused to pay him his wages, and no more were held. 

Added to all this evidence of careful preparation 
for the Sassoun massacre is the fact that on the first 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. j»j 

day of the butchery Zekki Pasha, commander of the 
troops, read to the soldiers an order from the Sultan 
directing that the Sassounlis be killed and their vil- 
lages destroyed. On the anniversary of the Sultan's 
accession to the throne, Zekki pinned this order to the 
breast of his coat and exhorted the soldiers to great 
zeal and activity in the extermination of the Christians. 
For his energy in depopulating Sassoun by fire and 
sword Zekki was afterward decorated by the Sultan, 
and the soldiers were highly complimented on their 
heroic conduct, A stand of colors was sent to them, 
but before the presentation could be made the outcry 
had become so great that the Sultan deferred it until a 
more propitious time. 

The next disturbance of any consequence took 
place in Constantinople on September 30, 1895. "^^^ 
Armenians, hoping that a respectful petition to the 
Grand Vizier might have a beneficial effect, made a 
haiTnless demonstration to ask the government to re- 
dress their wrongs and grant reforms. There was 
nothing of a revolutionary or violent character about 
it. The men carried no guns, and they conducted 
themselves in an orderly manner. Three hours after 
the demonstration was over the Turks began an attack 
on the Armenians, which resulted in the assassination 
of many peacefully-disposed men and women. For 
the details of this butchery, including the ripping 
open of a pregnant Armenian woman, I refer the 
reader to the British Blue Book of last February.* 

A few days later an Armenian fired at and wounded 
Bahri Pasha, ex-Governor of Van, as he was passing 

* Blue Book, " Turkey No. 2 (1896)," pages 22, 25, etc. 



34 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

through the streets of Trebizond on his way to Con- 
stantinople. Search was made for the assailant, and 
the city relapsed into its normal state of calm. This 
tranquility lasted for four days, when, without warn- 
ing of any sort, the Turks made a sudden and furious 
attack upon the Armenian population. Hundreds of 
innocent, unresisting men were killed, and much pro- 
perty was destroyed. The massacre was the result 
of orders issued by government officials whose actions 
are controlled by the Sultan.* 

While yet the civilized world was doubting the 
reality of this act of barbarism a cyclone of Moslem hate 
descended unexpectedly upon the city of Erzeroum. 
The people were in the streets, fearing no harm. At 
a signal the Turkish citizens, assisted by the soldiers, 
rushed upon the dazed Armenians, shooting, stabbing 
and hewing until hundreds of Armenian men, women 
and children lay dead and mutilated. \ The attack had 
been in preparation for some time, and so sudden was 
it that an American, who was in Erzeroum for the 
purpose of opening an American consulate, barely 
escaped with his life while walking in the street. He 
was rescued from a mob of Turks by the armed 
servants of the British consul. 

Then followed massacre after massacre throughout 
Armenia. The city of Kharput was the last place in 
Turkey that one would have selected as likely to be 
devastated by Kurds or attacked by Turkish soldiers. 
The destruction of American mission property by order 
of government was such a remote contingency that 

* Blue Book, " Turkey No. 2 {1896)," pages 88, 89, 113, 114, 136. 
t Blue Book, "Turkey No. 2 (i8g6)," pages 149, 151, 154, 216. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 33 

anyone prophesying it would have been looked upon 
as demented; yet eight of the twelve mission buildings 
were burned by Kurds and soldiers; the missionaries 
were shot at ; many hundreds of persons in and around 
the city were killed, and more than one hundred 
thousand were stripped of their possessions and left 
destitute. Not the slightest intimation had been re- 
ceived that an attack on the mission was contemplated. 
In fact three days before the massacre one of the chief 
officials of the place personally assured the mission- 
aries that the mission was perfectly safe; that there 
was absolutely nothing to fear, and that anyone .who 
harmed the mission would first be compelled to walk 
over his dead body. When the red wave of massacre 
and devastation broke upon Kharput it was so electric 
in its suddenness that no one in the mission suspected 
harm until the assassins swarmed in with torch and 
rifle and sword. 

In the midst of the sack of the mission, while the 
mission houses were burning and bullets were whizzing 
about the ears of the missionaries fleeing to shelter, 
it was noticed that the officer in chief command of the 
work of destruction was the official who, three days 
before, had pledged his own life in protection of the 
mission. It was this same man who urged the mis- 
sionaries to come out from their place of refuge, in 
order that they might be coveniently shot to death. 
When the massacre was over it was found that the 
wheel chair of Mrs. Allen, who is an invalid, was in 
possession of a high government official. Mr. Allen 
was compelled to pay three Turkish pounds to get it 
back. 



36 HORRORS . OF A R MEN I A . 

I have made a list of thirty-four separate massacres 
of Christians in the Turkish empire from September 
30 to December 29, 1895. In almost every case the 
responsibility for the massacre rests upon the govern- 
ment ofhcials. I was in Asia Minor while most of 
these massacres were taking place, and I made it my 
business to investigate their origin. At the time of 
the destruction of three hundred and fifty villages in 
the province of Van I talked with some of the Kurds 
who were taking part in the work. In explanation of 
the wide extent of the disaster the Kurds said that 
they were acting under orders from the government. 
Mr. Hallward, British Vice-Consul at Van, reported to 
the Foreign Ofhce the same fact.* 

I have received a trustworthy report of the massa- 
cre at Zile, which had been overlooked in the greater 
magnitude of other Turkish butcheries. As the details 
of the Zile massacre are the least horrible of any in my 
possession, and as the official method of carrying out 
the Sultan's orders will stand as a fair type for the rest 
of the massacres, I will give parts of the report, in- 
cidentally calling attention to the fact that it was from 
Zile that the great Caesar sent to Rome the historic 
message, " I came ; I saw ; I conquered." 

* ' When disastrous events were reported of other 
cities," the report says, '^ the Armenians grew fearful. 
Some desired to close their shops and remove their 
goods to their houses, but were prevented by the 
officers, who called the principal men of the Arme- 
nians together, assured them there was nothing to 
fear, and urged them to continue their business. On 

* Blue Book, "Turkey No. 2 (1896), ". page 288. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 37 

November 28, most Armenian shop keepers were in 
their places, and of those whose business did not 
require shops, fifty or sixty of the principal men were 
collected by the police at a casino in the market under 
pretense of business about taxes. 

' ' At noon a trumpet was blown and the Turks, both 
soldiers and civilians, began to assault Armenians, 
crying out, ' Down with Armenians ! This is the Sul- 
tan's order ! Real estate to the crown ; commodities to 
plunder.' The captain gave order to forty or fifty 
soldiers to open fire. They obeyed, and when the Ar- 
menians tried to run from the market to their houses 
they encountered the soldiers stationed in the quarters 
as well as the armed Turkish mob, neither of whom 
showed any mercy to the Christians. Of those in the 
casino all were killed except fifteen or twenty, who 
escaped one by one, although wounded. In two hours 
two hundred shops were looted. 

"The governor called to the crowd, 'Be active! 
Don't fail in killing, plundering, or in praying for the 
Sultan.' The other officers joined in killing. A 
major attended to the distribution of the cartridges, 
as the supply was exhausted. The officers arranged 
to have for themselves the most valuable plunder se- 
cured by their men. 

' ' From the market the attack proceeded by several 
orderly bands to the different quarters of the city. 
The soldiers fired over walls, into upper windows, and 
at anyone in sight. Under cover of their fire the mob 
burst open gates, delivered up remaining inmates, and 
sacked the houses. A prominent man, long a member 
of the Irade Mejlisi, was killed with his two sons, and 



SS HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

thrown from the upper window with the remark, 
* Get a move on yon ! The governor wants you at the 
meeting. ' 

" A woman tried to intercede for her husband, but 
she was killed with him, their young babe sharing their 
fate. A man of eighty years of age was killed by the 
mob, and then his skull was broken in pieces by a man 
equally old. 

" A young man was halted by the crowd, and a man 
put a revolver in the hand of his son, eight or ten 
years of age, saying, ' Shoot, my boy, and learn how 
to kill infidels. ' 

'* The alternative of life on the acceptance of Mo- 
hammedism was commonly offered. A priest bared 
his own heart to the weapons about him rather than 
deny Christ. He was killed. Another said, * I do 
not believe in Mohammedism, but I will die for the 
honor of Christ, in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost. ' He was bayoneted to 
death. 

' ' One hour before sunset a trumpet was blown 
again, and the mob began to desist, although some 
could not be called from the spoils until sunset put an 
end to activity and gave the remaining Armenians time 
to realize the horrors of the situation. When the 
trumpet was blown it was announced by criers that 
the remaining Armenians should be gathered to the 
government for protection. But only fifteen or twenty 
could then be found. They were taken to the govern- 
ment house, helped along by the butt end of guns 
when they fainted at the sight of the corpses in the 
street. They were told that they would be killed at 



Horrors of Armenia. ^^ 

sunset unless they turned Moslems, and turbans of 
g-reen and white were wound about their heads in the 
attempt to force them to a change of faith. The same 
alternative was pressed on those who took refuge in 
Turkish houses. 

''During the night the dead were gathered in 
wagons and carried to the trash pile outside of the city. 
Some of the wounded begged to be carried home, but 
they were killed and carted out with the rest. Bodies 
were thrown from the upper stories and dragged by 
cords tied to the feet. The next day one hundred 
were buried in one trench in the Armenian cemetery, 
of whom all but three were cut and hacked beyond all 
recognition. The burial place of the rest is un- 
known to this day. 

' ' The next day all were gathered to the gov- 
ernment, where they were urged to become Moham- 
medans. 

''When orders came for examination into the 
'event,' two Turks were imprisoned. They bawled 
out, ' The governor gave orders, and we killed and 
plundered! Now will they put us in prison?' Next 
day they were quietly released. 

"About two hundred persons were killed. Ten 
were w^omen and thirty were children. Two hundred 
shops and three hundred houses were looted. The 
loss is estimated at nearly two himdred thousand 
Turkish pounds ($888,000.)" 

The Sultan's responsibility for the Zile massacre is 
evident enough. 

There is no lack of proof from Mohammedan 
sources that the massacres were ordered by Abd-ul- 



40 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

Hamid. While I was in Van the British Vice-Consul 
happened to call upon Bahri Pasha, the governor, at a 
time when several prominent Kurdish Sheikhs were 
present. Bahri Pasha, whom I met several times, has 
a record of having caused the death of 1,200 Arme- 
nians. To impress the British Vice-Consul with a 
sense of the activity of the government in quelling 
disturbances, Bahri said, in a stern, severe manner, to 
the Sheikhs : ' ' I want you to understand that this 
thing must stop. If you do not put an end to these 
Kurdish raids upon the Armenians I will have the 
head of each one of you ! " 

'' Bahri Pasha," said the chief Sheikh, wholly un- 
moved by the governor's show of displeasure; *'you 
speak with a double face. You well know that no 
Kurd could raid an Armenian village without permis- 
sion from the government. In private you say to us, 
'Go; kill, burn, plunder.' In public, before the face 
of the British official, you threaten to cut off our heads 
for obeying your orders. Have an end to this hypoc- 
risy and foolishness." Bahri Pasha did not renew 
the conversation on that line. 

In the whirlwind of death and devastation which 
swept down upon Diarbekr, Mardin and the country 
roundabout, the Kurds rose up for the slaughter and 
plunder of Christians, saying that they had been 
commanded to do the bloody work by an imperial 
order from the Sultan. No distinction was made 
between Armenians, Jacobites, Chaldeans or Nestori- 
ans. That it may be seen that the other Christians 
were no better treated than the Armenians I quote 
parts of a letter from an unprejudiced and reliable 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 41 

person in Mardin describing an attack on a Jacobite 
Syrian church in Kutterbul : 

''Saturday evening, November 2, the inhabitants of 
Kutterbul took refuge from the Kurds in the large 
stone church of the Jacobite Syrians, to which they 
had already moved their house-hold goods. Fugitives 
from three other villages, which had been attacked 
the day before, had also taken refuge here, so the 
church was packed with goods and people. That 
night the Kurds, with some men from Diarbekr, sur- 
rounded the church and began to shoot into the high 
narrow windows by which it is lighted. Aboosh 
Yacobe, pastor of the Protestant Church of the village, 
was the first one struck, but his wound was not serious, 
and he kept on his feet, giving such comfort as he 
could to his distressed companions. Seeing little 
effect from their efforts to dislodge the people and get 
at the booty, about midnight the Kurds took up part 
of the vaulted stone roof. Throwing in fire-brands 
through the opening thus made, they poured down 
kerosene on the blaze, at the same time firing into the 
defenseless crowd of men, women and children. A 
frantic rush was made for the door, but it was locked, 
and could be opened with the key only from the out- 
side. As is the case with most of the old churches, in 
order to prevent their desecration by being used as 
stables for horses, the door was very small, only about 
4>^ feet high by 2>^ feet wide. After much effort it 
was broken down, and the stifled, scorched, sorrow- 
stricken crowd poured out from the narrow egress, 
only to meet a deadly shower of bullets from the sur- 
rounding Kurds. 



42 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

"Among the crowd was Jourjis Khathershaw, 
who was for some years pastor of the mission church 
in Mosul. As he came out he was at once recog- 
nized by his beard and intelligent face as one of the 
clergy, and was seized, thrown down and clubbed. 
One of the books which had been scattered about by 
the marauders was thrust into his mouth, and he was 
mockingly called upon to read the church service. 
Fire-brands were then thrown upon him. Restored 
partly to consciousness by the pain, he began to crawl 
away ; whereupon he was again clubbed, drawn back, 
and burned to ashes." 

That the Sultan of Turkey has a tangible reason 
for putting Christians to death in this wholesale way 
there can be no doubt. He says that he is suppressing 
revolutionary uprisings, but that is ridiculous. There 
have been no revolutionary uprisings. The only 
demonstration at all resembling an uprising was the 
capture of Zeitoun by men driven to desperation at the 
thought of the fate about to overtake their wives, 
sisters and daughters. The capture of Zeitoun was 
not the result of revolutionary planning, although the 
leader of an Armenian society in London tried to 
claim the credit of it. The real reason for the massa- 
cres is to be found in this Mohammedan prayer : 

"O, Allah; make their children orphans, and defile their bodies, cause 
their feet to slip, give them and their families.their house-hold, their women, 
their children, their relations by marriage, their possessions and their race, 
their wealth and their lands as booty to the Moslems, O, Lord of all crea- 
tures." 

Faithfully have the exhortations in this prayer been 
heeded. Christian children have been made orphans; 
the bodies of Christian women have been defiled by 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 43 

lustful Moslem fiends; Christian feet have slipped in 
pools of blood, and Christian families and their posses- 
sions have been taken as booty by force of Moslem 
arms. 

The persecution in Turkey is not a persecution of 
Armenians, but of all Christians. It is a crusade 
against Christ. It is directed as much against Chris- 
tians in America as against Armenians in Turkey. 
The Armenians happen to be the most numerous of 
the Christian races in the Ottoman empire; therefore 
they bear the brunt of the crusade. The Jacobites, 
the Chaldeans and the Nestorians have their propor- 
tionate share. 

Leaving out of consideration other evidence of 
equal importance, the mere fact that during massacres 
the Christians are called upon to accept Mohammed or 
meet death proves the religious character of the 
crusade. Priests and protestant pastors have invari- 
ably been selected for exhibitions of special hatred 
and cruelty. The Moslem butcher has taken keen de- 
light in torturing holy men in the presence of their 
congregations and in hewing them down in the midst 
of their families. Each murdered pastor could have 
had life and honor and riches among the Turks had he 
consented to renounce Christ and accept Mohammed. 
I have already spoken of the heroism of the protestant 
pastor at Kharput. In my slight reference to the 
carnage in the Mardin and Diarbekr districts I have 
mentioned the death of a pastor in Kutterbul. The 
deaths of three others in Kutterbul and neighboring 
villages are typical of the fate of many holy men 
throughout the Turkish empire. 



44 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

During the attack on Karabash, three miles from 
Kutterbul, Pastor Hanoosh Melkie took refuge with 
his family and many other persons in the large dove- 
cotes around the outskirts of the village. What fol- 
lowed is thus described by my informant: 

' ' As soon as pastor Hanoosh in the dove-cotes 
knew that the village was taken he tried to open a 
small door opposite the one at which the Kurds 
were already forcing an entrance. Before he could 
get it open they broke in, and he was the first to meet 
them. Judging from his beard that he was the priest 
of the village, they supposed that he would have a 
large sum of money with him. He had only some 
bread, and taking a loaf from his bosom he gave it to 
one of them. This enraged them, yet they would 
have spared him had he lifted but one finger in 
token of acceptance of Islam. Refusing to do this he 
was struck down with a sword and killed before the 
eyes of his wife and children. His body was stripped 
and his family plundered." 

Hanna Sehda, a young preacher of much promise, 
escaped with his family from the Karabash dove-cotes. 
After wandering about and being fired on he at length 
found himself fleeing from a party of Kurds. The 
rest of the story is in the words of my correspondent : 

' ' Already faint with hunger and having stripped 
off nearly all his clothing, he soon became stiff with 
cold, and could make but slow progress. He was soon 
overtaken by the Kurds to whom he refused to yield 
by accepting Islam to save his life. The last seen of 
him by one of his church members, as he looked back 
in his flight, he was extending his arms to ward off 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 4^ 

the sword blows which hewed him down, after which 
a gun was discharged into his body. A few days after, 
one of his congregation, compelled by Moslems to go 
to the village where he had been killed, saw that his 
body had been burned. His baby girl and youngest 
boy died that night from exposure, while the elder 
boy, and his fair looking mother were led away into 
captivity." 

Pastor Aboosh, already mentioned as the first per- 
son to be wounded in the Jacobite church at Kutter- 
bul, was again wounded as he escaped through the 
broken door. Two days later he found the remnant 
of his family and part of his congregation in a deserted 
bath-house, where they were set upon by a party of 
Kurds. ''Aboosh tried to persuade them," said the 
same writer, ' ' to cease from further barbarities toward 
those who had already suffered so much. Perceiving 
that he was a ' spiritual head,' as the clergy are spoken 
of, the Kurds at once called on him to renounce his 
faith and accept Islam. He fixed a steady gaze upon 
them, but said nothing. ' Ha ! ' said one, ' see how the 
Infidel still holds stoutly to his faith. ' Another said 
to him, 'Just raise one finger (this is accepted by 
them as a confession of one God and Mohammed his 
prophet) and you will not be harmed. ' Instantly he 
calmly replied, ' I shall never raise my finger. ' A Kurd 
near him made a thrust at him with a straight dagger, 
while another a little farther away shot him, in the 
presence of his flock. " 

Not only are priests and pastors specially selected 
for torture and death in this religious crusade, but 
churches are needlessly destroyed or made use of as 



46 HORRORS OF A R MEN I A . 

stables. Even in time of peace the destruction and 
confiscation of Christian churches is carried on with 
unflagging zeal. I have among my notes long lists of 
churches that were taken from the Armenians during 
times of normal quiet within the past two years and 
turned into stables, sheep folds and bath houses for 
Kurdish harems. The Armenians regard with a high 
degree of reverence and love the sanctity of their 
churches. To them any defilement of a church is an 
affront too great to be forgiven. The Mohammedan 
knows this, and makes use of it to harass and perse- 
cute his Christian neighbor. 

When Kurds and Turks, in time of tranquility, 
select a church for confiscation, they often imitate the 
conduct of a wild beast playing with its prey. As a 
beginning the Kurds raid the church and carry off all 
the altar cloths and other portable property of any 
value. When the pastor and his congregation have 
had time to recover from this indignity the Kurds 
come again and defile the altar and sanctuary with 
nameless filth. This is usually repeated, after which 
the church is unmolested for a short time. Then the 
Kurds come in force, drive off or kill the priest and 
use the church for some ignoble purpose. 

Apart from the torture and murder of priests, the 
confiscation of churches and monasteries, and the cry, 
"Islam or death," which is the battle note of all mas- 
sacres, there are, to one who has visited the country, 
many other proofs of the religious nature of the cru- 
sade. These proofs are to be found in the conduct of 
Mohammedans toward their Christian neighbors in all 
the details of everyday life. They are so numerous 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 47 

and so far-reaching that I shall not attempt to describe 
them here. In Turkey there is neither law nor justice 
for the Christian. As to law and order, the greatest 
law-breaker and criminal in the Ottoman empire is the 
government itself. 

The judicial mind will naturally look for a reason 
for the present religious activity of the Sultan, as com- 
pared -with the less violent persecutions of past years. 
It is due chiefly to the pressure brought to bear upon 
him by fanatical Mohammedans of high standing 
among the faithful. Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid is Kaliph 
of the Sunni sect of Islam and the ''Shadow of God 
on Earth." The souls, as well as the bodies, of his 
subjects are in his keeping. Many zealous Moham- 
medans assert that the Kaliphate should not rest with 
Abd-ul-Hamid, but with an Arab, who has better 
claim to it. Last summer a force of Arabs actually 
made war on the Turks, mainly for that reason. 

If Abd-ul-Hamid were compelled to resign his 
position of "Shadow of God on Earth" the substance 
of his earthly throne would go with it. He would 
lose not only his Kaliphate but his Sultanate, and very 
likely his head. Therefore, if he can appease the 
fanatics by putting a literal interpretation upon the 
bloodthirsty exhortations of Moslem prayers he will 
remain secure on his tottering throne. Abd-ul-Hamid 
may fear the frown of Europe, but he fears his con- 
stituents more. 

In saying that the persecution of Christians in the 
Ottoman empire is a religious crusade, and in assert- 
ing that no massacre has been caused by a revolution- 
ary uprising, I have no intention of denying that Ar- 



48 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

menian revolutionary societies exist. They do exists 
but tliey are all outside of Turkey. In my capacity of 
investigator of the Armenian question I should have 
fallen far short of my duty to the public had I failed 
to probe the revolutionary movement to the bottom. 
There are several Armenian patriotic societies work- 
ing on different and sometimes conflicting lines. There 
are quack revolutionists whose sole purpose is to make a 
living out of their fellow-countrymen, and there are 
revolutionists whose patriotism is as unselfish and 
sincere as that which led to the battle of Bunker Hill. 
Among the quack revolutionists are scoundrels who 
deserve the contempt of all honest men. Among the 
patriots are preachers of the Gospel, teachers in schools 
and colleges, merchants and other men of character 
and ability. Their dream of ' ' Free Armenia " may 
never, never come true; but in America, at least, the 
ambition of a sincere patriot can be understood. 

The Sultan has shown such an overweening anxiety 
to throw blame for the revolutionary movement upon 
the unoffending shoulders of the American mission- 
aries in Turkey that I consider it only just to say that, 
as a matter of actual fact, the missionaries know noth- 
ing about it. Living in Turkey they are out of the 
sphere of revolutionary activity. The Sultan brings 
against them a charge of revolutionary complicity as a 
means of getting them out of his dominions. He does 
not want them there, as he is already alarmed at the 
spread of education and other influences of civilization 
among the Christians. He prefers to remain in the 
dark. The white light of civilization is painful to his 
clouded eyes. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 49 

III. 

THE REMEDY. 

After nearly a year and a half of almost uninter- 
rupted investigation I can see only one practical reme- 
dy for the present Armenian situation. There is 
nothing in sight to justify the hope that the condition 
of the country will improve. On the contrary, there 
are unmistakable signs that it will grow worse. Yet 
it seems as though nothing could be worse, short of 
total annihilation. Armenia is one huge flaming hell 
from end to end. 

The relief funds are practically exhausted ; yet the 
missionaries who distributed the relief have not fed 
one-fourth of the total number of hungry and desti- 
tute people. Half a million persons are wandering 
about in search of food or cowering in their ruined 
villages face to face with famine. They cannot be al- 
lowed to die of hunger and the epidemics of typhus, 
smallpox and other dreadful diseases now raging 
among them ; yet even the coming of summer will not 
improve their condition. They cannot till the fields, 
even if allowed to do so in peace and security, for they 
have neither seed nor farming implements. During 
the massacres and raids last year they lost all of their 
possessions, including their household goods and most 
of their own clothing. 

It is hopeless to try to feed the Armenians until the 
Turk grows tired of persecuting and murdering them. 
So long as no definite steps are taken for the perma- 
nent improvement of the condition of the Armenians 



50 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

any relief given will be only temporary in its effects. 
To continue it is merely pouring water into a sieve. 
Friends of the persecuted Christians in Turkey must 
unite upon a practical plan for permanent relief, or 
join with Europe in abandoning the Armenians to 
their fate. 

I have a practical remedy. As a result of two 
visits to Asia Minor to investigate the Armenian 
question I am convinced that the only course open 
now is to RESCUE the Armenians from the flaming 
pit which has engulfed them, and to assist them to 
find homes in less barbarous lands than Turkey. 

It is not necessary that the Armenians should re- 
main in Turkey. There are billions of acres of un- 
cultivated land in South America, Australia, South 
Africa, Persia, Russia and Siberia, where the Ar- 
menians may be colonized to great advantage to them- 
selves. They are hardy, frugal and industrious, and 
they would make splendid pioneers for the develop- 
ment of new countries. In my travels about the 
world I have visited many places that could take all 
the Armenians in Turkey and would be glad to get 
them. The matter of climate is not a formidable 
obstacle, for experience has shown that the Armenian 
thrives well in any climate, whether it be on the 
frozen steppes of Russia or the burning sands of 
Egypt. 

On my return from Asia Minor recently I submit- 
ted a Rescue Plan to the Armenian Relief Associa- 
tion, of New York City, with the request that funds be 
raised immediately to carry it into effect. The gentle- 
men comprising the Asociation gave the plan their 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 51 

unanimous approval, and voted to undertake its exe- 
cution at once, without, however, abandoning their 
temporary relief work, which will necessarily be con- 
tinued until the need for it no longer exists. The 
members of the Association are so widely known and 
hold so high a place in the confidence and esteem of 
the public that their names alone are a guarantee that 
the funds received for the Rescue work will be wisely 
and carefully administered. A full list of officers will 
be found farther on in this volume. 

The obstacles in the way of this Rescue work are 
thoroughly well known and fully appreciated. I re- 
alize better than anyone else that the undertaking is 
difficult, but I can conscientiously say, as a practical 
man of affairs, that it is by no means impossible. 
Good management alone is necessary to its success. 

As I have no desire to take the Sultan of Turkey 
into the confidence of the Association in this matter I 
am debarred from making public the details of the 
plan. All that may be said at present is that the 
Rescue Fund will be used to take such means as may 
be found desirable to rescue destitute Armenians from 
the horror of their present situation and transport 
them to places of safety where they may begin life 
anew. The subscribers to the Fund need no further 
guarantee than the names of the officers of the Asso- 
ciation. 

The need for a Rescue Fund is appallingly urgent. 
No one who has not actually been on the ground can 
realize the awfulness of the state of things, and no one 
who has not passed through the experience can appre^ 
ciate the utter impotency of human tongue and pen to 



32 HORRORS OF ARMENIA, 

tell the story as it is. Even the American mission- 
aries, necessarily accustomed to the sufferings of per- 
secuted Christian people, are overwhelmed at the 
magnitude of the disaster and the depth of the distress. 
A missionary in Kharput says, ''It almost wears me 
out to stand up against the constant pressure of want 
and misery. " In Kharput 6 1, 586 persons had received 
aid up to March 2, yet the demand was increasing. A 
missionary stationed there writes : 

" The tremendous size of the problem facing us 
grows upon us as we go on. I do not think that any 
centre in the country is surrounded by such a vast 
number of destitute people as is Kharput. The num- 
ber of the needy increases, because many who had a little 
food have now exhausted their store. For multitudes 
the end of April will bring no alleviation of their dis- 
tress. There are thousands of widows and orphans 
thrown upon the world with no bread winners. There 
are artisans without tools, farmers without seed or 
cattle, and people without houses. What are they to 
do? The prospect is awful. 

' ' As we consider matters it seems to us that the es- 
timate of 100,000 destitute people in this field is not 
exagerated, as new villages keep coming in whose 
supplies are exhausted. If we should reckon on giving 
one lira for each destitute person it would require 
one hundred thousand liras, and one lira ($4.44) per 
soul is not an extravagant estimate if people are to be 
at all adequately clothed and fed. 

" It is not a district that has suffered and individ- 
uals in distress, but a kingdom desolated and a nation 
in danger of perishing. ' ' 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 53 

It is natural that this writer should suppose that 
there were more destitute persons in the Kharput dis- 
trict than in any other; yet I think that he would 
acknowledge the claims of the province of Van if he 
knew the facts. On the day on which his letter was 
written the missionaries were feeding nineteen thous- 
and starving persons in the city of Van alone, and at 
that time the funds were exhausted and the number 
of applications for relief was increasing. No relief 
was being given to the 350 villages that had been de- 
vastated by the Kurds last November. 

In Marash between four and five thousand refugees 
have died of smallpox, dysentery and typhus, yet 
that fact has not diminished the number of refugees who 
flocked there from Zeitoun and the surrounding country. 
A message lately received from Marash says: ''The 
problem of how to help sufferers here and in Zeitoun 
comes upon us with crushing force. The misery is past 
human imagination. " On their way to Marash the 
Zeitoun refugees were shamefully treated by the 
soldiers, who stoned, beat and clubbed them with 
great cruelty. 

In Bitlis the Christians are casting about for some 
means of getting away. Thousands of them will emi- 
grate as soon as the means are provided. My corres- 
pondent in Bitlis writes : 

' ' Every other day a panic destroys the hope of the 
day before. The Turks are constantly threatening, 
and arrests are the order of the day. The emigration 
plan is the only salvation for the people. This awful 
distress must inevitably continue for months, if not 
for two years. A second harvest must come before 



S4 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

people can eat to decent satisfaction. Even suppose 
thousands of pounds are poured into the country for 
the reconstruction of the farming industry, the com- 
ing harvest cannot be large. " 

Heretofore the presence of the American mission- 
aries has been to some extent a restraint upon the 
Sultan in his persecution of Christians, but there are 
strong indications which point to the expulsion of the 
missionaries from Turkey before the close of this year. 
It is believed by persons best qualified to speak on the 
subject that while the Sultan may not go to the ex- 
treme of issuing an order for the expulsion of the 
missionaries in a body he will get them out one at a 
time. To do this he will bring charges against them 
individually, thus causing them to be recalled to Con- 
stantinople to stand trial before the United States 
Consul-General. After their acquittal and discharge 
by the Consul-General they will be so annoyed and 
harassed by agents of the government that they will 
be compelled to leave the country. 

This policy of expulsion has already been begun. 
Charges of revolutionary complicity have been made 
against missionaries in three Turkish cities. One of 
the accused persons, the Rev. Mr. George P. Knapp, 
was taken from his home in Bitlis on March 29 to go 
to Constantinople to stand trial. The Turkish gov- 
ernment made no secret of the fact that it intended to 
expel Mr. Knapp from Asia Minor. Mr. Knapp's 
chief offense was his activity in distributing relief to 
the starving Armenians. For many weeks he was a 
prisoner in his own house, not daring to step outside 
of his door lest he be shot. The Turks repeatedly 
threatened to take his life. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. sJ 

When the Sultan succeeds in getting rid of the 
tn; American missionaries he will be free to do as he 
pleases with the Christian inhabitants of his empire, 
for there will be no one to give aid to the destitute 
and no one to make known the results of persecutions 
and massacres. The Christians will suffer and die in 
silence. With the exception of British consuls, whose 
reports are promptly pigeon-holed by the Foreign 
Office, there will be no one to hear their cries of dis- 
tress and their appeals for help. The Turk will have 
full sway. 

Before summer is well begun many of the ladies 
attached to the mission stations in Turkey will prob- 
ably be on their way to Constantinople. It has already 
been decided that as soon as the situation grows more 
threatening the ladies will be recalled. Each mission 
station, however, will be allowed to decide for itself 
the date of departure. This is a course which I have 
urged repeatedly upon all the missionaries whom I 
met in Turkey. It is fitting and consistent that the 
■^ gentlemen of the mission stations should remain at 
their posts, for they have some chance of escaping in 
case of a general massacre. They know the country, 
the languages, and the wa3^s of the people. They have 
good saddle horses, and most of them can ride fast 
and far if need be. With the ladies it is entirely dif- 
ferent. The mere fact that they are Christian women 
is enough to subject them to outrage and death. They 
cannot, as I have been compelled to do, ride 220 miles 
on horseback in three days, nor can they exchange rifle 
shots at close range with Kurdish brigands or extri- 
cate themselves from the hand's of robbers. 



S6 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

The ladies are not actually needed for the distribu- 
tion of relief funds. All that they are doing in that 
line can be done efficiently by the men. 

Even the work which Miss Kimball is doing in Van 
with the assistance of Miss Fraser, Miss Huntington 
and Miss Knapp, can be done by her fellow-mission- 
aries the Rev. H. M. Allen and Dr. George C. Ray- 
nolds. There is no practical necessity for the presence 
of four American girls in Van, when two capable men 
are there to stand by the ship until it is overwhelmed. 
It will serve no good purpose to allow these girls to 
make martyrs of themselves. Their martyrdom will 
not help the Armenians, nor will it wean the Turk 
from his bloodthirsty prayers and his murderous fa- 
naticism. If their deaths would convert Turkey to 
Christianity or even put an end to the persecution of 
the Armenians there would be some justification, but 
the present situation calls for no such heroic measures. 

It is not a question of mere willingness to die for 
the spread of the Gospel. Of the fifty-three mission- 
aries in Turkey and Persia whom I have the pleasure 
of knowing not one would refuse to become a martyr 
for the cause of Christ ; yet I should be very sorry to 
have any of them throw their lives away when no dis- 
tinct gain to Christianity would result. With few 
exceptions the ladies at the Turkish mission stations 
are not evangelists ; they are teachers in the mission 
schools. I do not think that any rational-minded per- 
son will advocate the outrage and martyrdom of 
American girls for the sake of keeping Armenian 
schools open in Turkey. Knowing the situation from 
actual observation I most earnestly urge that the 
ladies be recalled. 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. S7 

If one considers the present situation from a busi- 
ness point of view the utter impossibility of doing any- 
thing to repair the damage and put the people on 
their feet again will be apparent. The figures from 
the missionaries having charge of the relief funds in 
the devastated districts tell their own story. In 
Kharput alone half a million dollars are needed to 
furnish food and clothing to the destitute, to say 
nothing of rebuilding the destroyed houses. Another 
half million will be needed in the province of Van. But 
the million dollars thus wanted for mere subsistence 
represents only two districts. How much would be 
required to feed and clothe the people, rebuild their 
houses and restock their farms with oxen, sheep, cat- 
tle, farming implements and seed for the spring crops 
is beyond computation. The amount would be several 
millions. Considering that America and Great Britain 
together have contributed a beggarly fraction of what 
has been imperatively demanded the outlook for the 
Armenians is not cheering. 

Let the situation be considered solely as a business 
proposition. Assuming that there are five hundred 
thousand persons in need of food and other assistance, 
and taking the Kharput estimate of one lira each for 
subsistence, the amount needed to ward off hunger is 
seen to be, in round numbers, about two millions and 
a half of dollars. Assuming, further, that seven dol- 
lars a head are needed for the rebuilding of houses, 
the purchase of farming tools, and the restocking of 
stables with sheep and cattle and draught oxen, the 
total is three millions and a half. 

This is a small estimate, as the loss in Zile, where 



sB HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

one of the least of the massacres took place, was 
nearly a million dollars. In Trebizond the loss was 
another million. But I am not estimating on the cost 
of restoring the destroyed property to its original 
value : I am merely making a minimun calculation for 
food and the restocking of farms. The amount needed, 
therefore, to enable these people to maintain a bare 
existence, is six million dollars. America was six 
months in raising $160,000 for the famine funds. 
Anyone can estimate how long it would take, at that 
rate, to obtain the whole amount. As a business pro- 
position the thing is impossible. 

The Rescue work is not only possible but is com- 
paratively inexpensive. It costs less to feed and find 
shoes for a man during the short time in which he is 
traveling to a place of safety than to try to feed him, 
clothe him and set him on his feet at home in his 
ruined village, where a repetition of last year's disas- 
ter is to be looked for from year to year until the 
Armenian race is exterminated. 

I wish it to be distinctly borne in mind that I am 
not formulating a mere theory : I am giving facts. I 
have investigated the situation in the distressed dis- 
tricts of Armenia, and I have examined into the con- 
dition of the large Armenian colonies in Russia and 
elsewhere. I have discussed the emigration plan with 
missionaries, consuls, merchants and refugees. At 
the present moment there is no other practicable solu- 
tion of the Armenian question. 

Assuming, as I most certainly do assume, that 
every American man and woman, whether Christian 
church member or not, has a sincere desire, as a mat- 



HORRORS OF ARMENIA. S9 

ter of common humanity, to give practical, permanent 
relief to the starving Armenians, I offer this plan as 
the only possible thing that can be done. 

I ask the people of America for one million dollars 
with which to Rescue the Armenians from the pit of 
lust, rapine, outrage and murder which holds them. 

I ask the members of the churches, for the sake of 
the Christ whom they worship and whose words are the 
guiding lines of their daily lives, to join in this work 
of Rescue. 

I ask those who are not church members to come, 
for the sake of common humanity, to the aid of these 
human beings in bitter distress. No man, whatever 
his religion, would let even a dog starve to death. 

I ask mothers with little children in their arms to 
save other Christian mothers and children from death 
by violence and hunger. 

I ask fathers of families to help other men protect 
wives and daughters from defilement and pollution. 

I ask young men to assist other young men to get 
mothers and sisters away to a place of safety. 

From the young women of America I ask pity and 
help for the young women of Armenia whose fate is 
worse than death. Help them to escape. 

As a practical man of affairs I ask practical men to 
take hold with the members of the Association in car- 
rying out a practicable working plan for the perma- 
nent relief of the Armenians. 

Many persons have refused to subscribe to the 
temporary relief funds on the ground that unless the 
money could be used for the permanent improvement 
of the condition of the Armenians it would be poured 



6o HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

into a sieve. To those persons I offer the Rescue 
plan as a measure of permanent relief, founded on 
sound business principles. Every dollar of the Rescue 
Fund will produce permanent relief, and instead of 
running through a sieve it will be the nucleus for the 
growth of happy, industrious Armenian homes in 
kinder lands than Turkey. In presenting this plan 
I desire to specially bring it to the notice of business 
men, who will appreciate the solid character of the 
foundation on which it rests. 

In asking for funds I acknowledge the right of 
every subscriber to know the names of the men into 
whose hands his money goes. It is not necessary to 
print here the names of all the members of the Armenian 
Relief Association, as the publication of the list of 
officers will be sufficient. The officers are as follows : 

President— The Rev. Henry Y. Satterlee, D.D., 
Bishop of Washington, D. C. 

First Vice-President. — The Hon. Levi. P. Morton, 
Governor of the State of New York and ex-Vice- 
President of the United States. 

Second Vice-President. — -The Rt. Rev. Henry C. 
Potter, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of New York. 

Honorary Secretary. — The Rev. David J. Burrell, 
D. D., pastor of the Marble Collegiate Reformed 
Church, New York City. 

Treasurer. — Charles H. Stout, Esq., Cashier of 
the National Bank of the Republic, New York City. 

General Secretary. — Herant Mesrob Kiretchjian, 
203 Broadway, New York, office of the Association. 

Vice-Presidents. — The Hon. William L. Strong, 
Mayor of New York City; the Rev. Lyman Abbott, 



HORRORS OF A RMENTA . 6i 

D.D., pastor of the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's 
church in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Gen. Horace Porter; the 
Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., rector of St. Bartholo- 
mew's Church; Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin, of Columbia 
College, son of the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., founder 
of Robert College, Constantinople, Turkey ; Augustus 
D. Shepard, Esq., Vice-President of the American 
Bank Note Company; the Rev. William R. Hunting- 
ton, D.D., rector of Grace Church, New York City; 
Prof. William H. Thomson, M.D., of the University 
Medical College ; the Rev. Robert S. MacArthur, D.D., 
pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; Prof. C. W. E. 
Body, D.D., of the General Theological Seminary; 
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Esq. ; William P. St. John, 
Esq., President of the Mercantile National Bank; the 
Rev. James M. King, D.D., pastor of the Union M. E. 
Church, New York ; the Very Rev. Eugene A. Hoff- 
man, Dean of the General Theological Seminary. 

Executive Committee. — Chairman, J. Bleecker Mil- 
ler, Esq., of the Lawyers' Title Insurance Company, 
New York City; Secretary, Nicholas R. Mersereau, 
Esq,, merchant; Ludlow Ogden, Esq., President of the 
Church Club; the Rev. C. W. E. Body, D.D. ; Prof. 
William H. Thomson, M.D. ; Henry H. Man, Esq., of 
the law firm of Man & Man ; Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin ; 
Robert G. Hone, Esq., of the Lawyers' Bond and 
Mortgage Company ; Charles H. Stout, Esq. 

Most of these names are known in every part of the 
American continent. All are familiar to residents of 
New York City. The men who bear them need no 
commendation here, and it is unnecessary to say that 
funds placed in the hands of the Armenian Relief 



62 HORRORS OF ARMENIA. 

Association for the Rescue of the Armenians will be 
carefully used. 

During the past winter the Association has been 
hard at work raising funds for the relief work among 
the starving Christians in Turkey. Its collections 
have been forwarded for distribution to the American 
missionaries and to Miss Clara Barton, who has been 
in Constantinople as agent of the Red Cross Society. 
But the purpose for which the Association exists is not 
confined to the giving of temporary relief. It has in 
view the permanent improvement of the condition of 
the Armenian people. The Rescue work, therefore, is 
to the Association a matter of the most pressing im- 
portance. Its method of treatment of the Armenian 
situation is broad, philanthropic and practical. 

As an American citizen I ask my fellow-countrymen, 
without distinction of race, religion or creed, to join 
in this work. Let every reader of this little book fill 
out the subscription blank on the last page, cut out the 
entire leaf, and send it to Mr. Stout, Treasurer of the 
Association, whose address appears thereon. Any 
subscription, no matter how small or how large the 
amount, will be welcomed, and the giver may be 
certain that it will be a practical, permanent help to 
the Armenian people. I shall not consider that the 
book has done its full duty unless the subscription 
page is cut out. 

Under no circumstances should money be given to 
persons representing themselves as agents or collectors 
for this Fund. Subscriptions should be sent direct to 
Mr. Stout, the only person authorized to receive them. 



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